No way is grey boring: since late summer 2018, Ströher's architecture brand clinker brick slips manufactured specially for this project have enhanced the 1,600 square metre facade of the luxury residential complex at Jarrestrasse 58 in Hamburg. With a bit of imagination, the vibrant iridescent texture of our architecture brand in silk grey to smoky dark grey is reminiscent of a shimmering fish skin. The unusual look is unlikely to have an affect on the fish in the adjacent Osterbekkanal, but the environmental improvement work carried out during the building project certainly will. For many years, the fish were literally up to their eyeballs in laundry, as the laundry located there until 1992 dumped large amounts of chemicals into the sewage system for decades, polluting the groundwater for a long time. All that has now changed: after a comprehensive and costly clean-up of the 3,800 square metres of land, the site is now home to the "Jarre 58" residential complex.

Following the plans of Hamburg-based architects Henke + Partner, the construction company Otto Wulff built 64 owner-occupied apartments with two to four rooms and living space of between 60 and a spacious 165 square metres. The contaminated soil was replaced by new sand to a depth of up to six meters. The cost for this was around five million euros. Not a trifling amount, even when set against a project volume of over 37 million euros. However, the result, which now rises from the fresh earth, is impressive down to the last detail: The new five-storey building, designed as a KfW Efficiency House 70 in the heart of the district of Winterhude, is accessed via five entrances from an attractively landscaped inner courtyard. This is also the location of the entrance to the underground car park, with 64 parking spaces and an equal number of charging stations for electric cars.

Floor-to-ceiling windows, rounded corners on the buildings and, in particular, the facade created by Ströher in a finely contoured brick look, make the residential complex an attractive and healthy place to live for its residents. And the fish like it too.